Hey, Shun here!
I never found hunting mobs as something tedious but man, the experience of having to constantly go around it to attacks its blind spot and vitals is really quite hard.
Maintaining focus for a long time is something I can do but it just takes too much of my brain power sometimes.
Welp, I chose this so I guess I have to deal with it myself.
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(Shun's POV)
Because of her blunder, Pochi is feeling quite depressed while Tama is there to cheer her up. However, it looks like it wasn't enough to cheer the dog girl up.
"Alright, if we can reach level 10 by lunch tomorrow, I will cook lots of hamburg steaks…"
When I said that, the two beast girls immediately focused their sights on me while energetically saying, "Meat!" simultaneously.
"Meat, nanodesu!? Are you sure nodesu!? It's a promise nanodesu!"
"Promise~!"
"Ah-ha-ha… It's good that you're energetic again, Pochi. Now, shall we go?"
"Hai, nanodesu! Time to leave town nodesu!"
"Meat~, meat~!"
We began walking toward the town exit while Pochi and Tama sang the 'Meat' song with 'meat' being its only lyrics.
Since Pochi is quite slow, we decided to carry her. It became my responsibility to give the dog girl a piggyback ride while me and Tama moved at breakneck speeds.
Because of our enhanced speed, it didn't take us long to pass through the town exit. When we kept going, we eventually reached the field outside.
The town's outskirts weren't as crowded as the square, but there were still people around. Fighting here would mean someone was bound to see what we're up to.
Thus, we decided to move to a more secluded place. We kept on running until we are deep in a nearby forest. There's no sign of anyone else in the area.
When we arrived, I let Pochi down so that I could first demonstrate how we'll hunt the monsters.
Time for our first battle in this [New World Online].
"Alright you girls. First, I'll be showing you how its done. Then, you can adopt my method and try it out yourself. However, remember to do it your own way, okay? Try to move in a way that makes you feel comfortable and not awkward."
"Okaaay~!"
"Understood nanodesu!"
While I was busy explaining things to them, a white rabbit with some sharp horns came running out of the grass. It charged at me with a fairly high speed.
With my superior speed, I easily dodged the attacks of the rabbit. Using one of the first two [Arts] of sorts in my Sword Mastery, I attacked the defenseless back of the rabbit from the side.
""Slash—!""
With my call, the sword within my hands glowed ever so slightly as I slashed at the rabbit's spine.
"Pukya!"
Obviously hurt by my attack, the rabbit tried to perform its own counter but to no avail. I was simply faster than her.
I easily moved to the helpless rabbit's blind spot, its back, and mercilessly attacked it from behind in its vitals. Stabbing its head, its spine, its chest, I did all those while dodging some occasional strikes from the horned rabbit.
It probably took me a good thirty seconds before the rabbit finally kicked the bucket. Once I'm done, I directed my gaze toward the two girls who's accompanying me.
"Now that you saw how I hunted that rabbit, I'll now tell you the thoughts behind my attacks and movements. Are you two ready?"
"Ou~!"
"Hai nanodesu!"
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After teaching Pochi and Tama the fundamentals of wielding a sword, I let them have a go at the rabbits themselves. I thought at they would at first have an aversion to killing such cute creatures but I guess I was wrong.
After almost a day of practice, these two cleaved the poor bunnies into tiny pieces without a problem. Interesting enough, Tama seems to be adopting my teachings quite fast as she moved around the rabbit with precise and calculated movements.
There's still a lot of room for improvement but this is already quite a great progress for someone who just learned how to wield a sword, much less dual wield.
In Pochi's case, she's definitely learned a thing or two from what I taught her but she fight based on her instincts and intuition. The way she suddenly spins around before cleaving the enemy is quite a great sight to behold.
"Whoops, sorry Rabbit-san nanodesu!"
"Sorry~… Tama will be a ninja… Nin nin~!"
Seeing the two have fun, I couldn't help but smile. Looks like they're slowly becoming more and more energetic. During our first meeting, they sure appear energetic but it's more about excitement in discovering something unique.
Outside of that, though, they were quite the lonely kids who's constantly facing hardships in their home world. Based on their stories, their desire for meat manifested when they first got a taste of a barbecued meat from a kind vendor.
"Pochi, Tama, let's kill ten more bunnies each and then take a break. We're about to reach level 10 so it's an appropriate time to take a break."
"Yees~"
"Yes, nanodesu!"
We all split up together once again and hacked bunnies upon bunnies. We've been doing this for almost an hour now and I'm wondering whether I'll get a skill or not.
While I was thinking of that, I killed the last rabbit with a slash directed at its neck.
"PuUkyAa!"
Once I did, I heard a notification sound ring beside my ears.
「You have reached level 10!」
「You acquired the [Extreme Speed] skill」
「Acquisition Condition: Travel at a certain speed and reach level 10 by killing monsters.」
Aside from that, by targeting the weak points and relying on ambushes and attacks on the blindspots of the enemies, I, and probably Tama, finally got the skill that the beast girl has been waiting for.
「You acquired the [Ninjutsu I] skill」
「Acquisition Condition: Ambush or attack your enemies and kill them by solely dealing damage through attacking their blindspots and vital points. Reach level 10 while doing so.」
It was an extremely tough skill to acquire. According to the post I've read, there were many who tried to acquire it but many also failed.
Well, I can see why they failed.
"Let's check my status then the effects of this skills, shall we?"
✽✽[Status]✽✽
Name: Syunpo
Level: 10
HP: 60/60
MP: 42/42
STR: 0+15
VIT: 0+10
AGI: 350(175×2)
DEX: 70(20+50)
INT: 0
SP: 0
Equipment
Head: [None]
Body: [Starter Wool Armor]
R. Hand: [Starter One-handed Sword]
L. Hand: [None]
Legs: [None]
Feet: [None]
Accessories: [None], [None], [None]
Skills:
[Sword Mastery], [Overhead Slash], [Power Attack], [Taijutsu], [Leap], [Pinpoint Attack], [Extreme Speed], [Ninjutsu I]
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✽✽[Extreme Speed]✽✽
Doubles the user's AGI. Raising STR, VIT, or INT requires 3x more points.
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✽✽[Ninjutsu I]✽✽
Allows the player to use the skills of a ninja. Adds 50 points to the user's DEX and AGI.
[Skills]:
• "Substitution"
- Utilizes the user's AGI to quickly switch places with a wooden plank. The higher the user's AGI the more effective this skill is. Costs 5% of the user's MP.
• "Transformation"
- Spend 5% of your mana to transform into anything with similar body mass. The array of transformations the user can do increases relative to [Ninjutsu's] level.
• "Body Flicker"
- Increases the user's AGI by 50% momentarily to allow him to flicker at different directions. Costs 10% of the user's mana.
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Since we aren't getting any skill that we could use, I told them to allocate some stats to some other stats they want. In my case, I added 2 points to my HP, 3 points to my MP, 25 points to my AGI and 20 points to my DEX.
You get 5 stat points every level and 10 whenever you reach a level with 0 in it so, in total, you'll be able to get 50 stat points at level 10 and 55 stat points every 10 levels after that.
I saw on the forums that Ninjutsus may cost MP so I allocated points to it. Who knew that the Ninjutsus takes MP by percentage?
Anyway, it looks like Tama copied my build, even though I told her to do what she think would be best. Her answer to me at the time was, "Copying [Admin] is bestest~!".
In Pochi's case, she was quite unique. Unlike me and Tama, she got the skills called [Conqueror], [Destroyer], and [Sixth Sense].
[Conqueror] is like our [Extreme Speed] but doubles her Strength instead, [Destroyer] allows her to wield two handed weapons like greatswords with one hand, while [Sixth Sense] allows her to know where the enemy is momentarily through the use of her enhanced dog beastkin senses.
If Pochi got a skill like that, I bet Tama will also get one once she truly starts to play in her own way. I guess Pochi messing up is a blessing in disguise after all.
"Since we already reached our goal, let's log out for now so that I can prepare lunch! Also, I already taught you two what you need to know. After lunch, you two can go on an adventure yourself, okay? Just contact me from time to time if something happens, okay?"
Even though they are slightly confused, the two still agreed.
"Okaay~?"
"Understood nodesu!"
With this, my influence on Tama will be lessened and she could explore things on her own for a while.
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※~To be continued~※
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Author's Remarks:
※ Pochi would've turned out like Tama if she got the same stats as Shun. Unfortunately, she didn't have the stats required to copy Shun.
※ If you guys don't know, Tama is a little genius. She picks up things really fast and after two years, she became the most skilled in her team in terns of combat other than Liza. I want her to develop on her own for a while before I let Shun fix her flaws later on.
Special thanks to Sam Morgan and Kaberial for being my first and second members! I really appreciate it. Truly.